| Foul Play | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Colin Higgins |
| Written by | Colin Higgins |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | David M. Walsh |
| Edited by | Pembroke J. Herring |
| Music by | Charles Fox |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million[1] |
| Box office | $45 million[2] |
Foul Play is a 1978 Americanromanticneo-noircomedy thriller film written and directed byColin Higgins, and starringGoldie Hawn,Chevy Chase,Dudley Moore,Burgess Meredith,Eugene Roche,Rachel Roberts,Brian Dennehy andBilly Barty.[3] The plot concerns a recently divorced librarian who is drawn into a mystery when a stranger hides a roll of film in a pack of cigarettes and gives it to her for safekeeping.
The film received sevenGolden Globe Award nominations, includingBest Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy,Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Hawn),Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Chase) andBest Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture (Moore), as well as for theAcademy Award for Best Original Song, but won none.
The film inspired a television series ofthe same name starringBarry Bostwick andDeborah Raffin that aired on theABC network in early 1981, and was canceled after six episodes.[4]
A Catholicarchbishop returns home, walks into a room and puts on a record. He opens his cupboard and sees the reflection of a similar looking man staring back at him. He turns around quickly and is killed by a knife thrown into his chest.
While attending a party overlooking theGolden Gate Bridge, recentSan Francisco divorcée and shylibrarian Gloria Mundy sees Lieutenant Tony Carlson, a young police officer, at the bar, who ruins the moment by stumbling and spilling all the drinks. Gloria sits with a friend and is encouraged to open herself to new experiences. Driving home, Gloria picks up an attractive man named Bob "Scotty" Scott when she encounters him next to his broken down car. She impulsively accepts Scotty's invitation to join him at theNuart Theatre that evening, and before they part ways, he asks her to take his pack of cigarettes to help him curb his smoking. Unknown to her, Scotty has secreted a roll of undeveloped film in the cigarette pack. That evening, a seriously wounded Scotty meets Gloria in the theater and asks her about the film. He bleeds into her popcorn and warns her to "beware of the dwarf" before he dies. When his body mysteriously disappears while Gloria seeks help from the theater manager, she is unable to convince anyone of what has transpired. At home, she tells her elderly neighbor and landlord Mr. Hennessey of the events.
At the end of the next day, Gloria is attacked in her library byalbino Whitey Jackson who tries to useether on her. She runs off and hides in a singles bar where she asks a stranger, Stanley Tibbets, to take her home, but Stanley, an aspiring British womanizer who assumes she wants to have sex, mixes a cocktail laced withSpanish Fly and dances while removing nearly all his clothing toStayin' Alive, from aBee Gees album. Shocked by his misunderstanding, Gloria flees and returns to her apartment, where she is attacked by a man with a scar who demands the cigarette pack Scotty had given her. When he attempts to strangle her with a scarf, Gloria stabs him in the stomach with a pair of knitting needles and calls the police. When the attacker tries to stop her, he is killed by a knife thrown by Whitey through the kitchen window, and Gloria faints in shock. When she awakens, all traces of what has happened have disappeared, and she cannot convince Tony, his partner Inspector "Fergie" Ferguson, or even her landlord Mr. Hennessy that she was attacked.
Gloria is abducted by Turk Farnum, the chauffeur of a limousine in which she earlier had seen Whitey riding, but she manages to subdue him withmace andbrass knuckles given to her by her friend and fellow library employee, Stella. Upon further investigation, Tony discovers that Scotty, an undercover SFPD inspector who had received a tip that a major assassination would take place in the city on a certain night, was investigating contract killer Rupert Stiltskin (alias "the Dwarf"). Now assigned to protect Gloria from her would-be killers, Tony later takes her to his houseboat, where the two fall in love.
When Tony and Fergie discover that the limousine is registered to the archdiocese of San Francisco, they visit the office of Archbishop Thorncrest, unaware that their interviewee is actually the archbishop's twin brother Charlie, who is involved in a plot to assassinate Pope Pius XIII during his upcoming visit to San Francisco, and has murdered his twin in order to impersonate him. The following day, Rupert kidnaps Fergie and uses him to lure Gloria into a trap. She manages to hide in a massage parlor, where she encounters Stanley yet again, but Whitey and Stiltskin then find and abduct her.
At Gloria's request, Stella has researched an organization known as the Tax the Churches League, and discovered that the league is a radical fringe group founded by Delia Darrow and her husband. For the Darrows, organized religion is a corrupt, greedy sham involving powerful billion-dollar corporations. Stella gives the results of her findings to Tony, who returns to the archbishop's residence with Mr. Hennessy. Sneaking into the wine cellar, Tony discovers the imprisoned Fergie, who informs him that the Darrows hired Stiltskin to assassinate the Pope during a performance ofThe Mikado at theSan Francisco Opera House that evening. Tony is attacked by Rupert and kills him in self-defense by toppling shelves of wine upon him, but the fake archbishop's assistant Gerda Caswell, who is really Delia Darrow, holds him and Gloria at gunpoint.
Darrow then details her "contingency plan" to eliminate the pope: if the pope is not dead at the end of act I, if he leaves his seat at any time, or if the police arrive, Whitey Jackson will open fire from one of the auditorium's two organ bays. Mr. Hennessy knocks out Charlie and defeats Delia in a duel of martial arts, after which Tony and Gloria drive to the opera house, having some unusual problems along the way such as crashing into an Italian restaurant and commandeering an airport limousine carrying a pair of Japanese tourists. After making it backstage, Gloria is grabbed by Jackson, who kills one of several security guards who have joined the pursuit. An enraged Gloria attempts to attack Jackson, who simply shoves her to the floor. This gives Tony the room he needs to shoot the albino, thus thwarting the plan to kill the pope. When the albino falls from the rafters, he gets tangled in ropes and activates a lever that lowers a stage-length display of the shipH.M.S. Pinafore, which is unrelated to the current production. As the performance ends, Gloria and Tony are revealed kissing, onstage, along with the now-dead bodies of Jackson and the guard, but the pope, who seems not to have noticed anything unusual, leads the audience in applause for the cast, the orchestra, and Stanley, who is hiding from Gloria as the conductor.
Foul Play is an homage to directorAlfred Hitchcock,[5] several of whose films are referenced during the film. The premise of an innocent person becoming entangled in a web of intrigue is common in Hitchcock films, such asThe 39 Steps,Saboteur,North by Northwest and, most notably,The Man Who Knew Too Much, which inspired the opera house sequence inFoul Play. When Gloria is attacked in her home by a man attempting to strangle her with a scarf and she defends herself with a household object, both are references toDial M for Murder. Other Hitchcock films which receive a nod from screenwriter/director Colin Higgins includeNotorious,Vertigo, andPsycho. In addition, the plot includes aMacGuffin—an object that initially is the central focus of the film but declines in importance until it is forgotten and unexplained by the end—in the form of the roll of film concealed in the pack of cigarettes which ends up being thrown into a fire in a fireplace. Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin and used the technique in many of his films.
"Audiences love to be scared and at the same time they love to laugh", said Higgins. "It is tongue in cheek realism. The audience is in on the joke but the actors must carry on as if they were unaware."[6]
The script originally was written under the nameKilling Lydia with Goldie Hawn in mind for the lead. Higgins had met Hawn through their mutual friendHal Ashby. However, the project did not take off. AfterSilver Streak came out, Higgins rewrote the script. He and the producers took the project to Paramount who hoped to starFarrah Fawcett. However, Fawcett was in the middle of a legal battle with the producers ofCharlie's Angels so it was decided to go with Hawn.[6]
The name Gloria Mundy is a reference to "Sic transit gloria mundi", Latin for "Thus passes the glory of the world": the phrase was part of the rite of papal coronation until 1963.
Higgins had written the role of Stanley Tibbets forTim Conway, but when the actor turned it down he offered it toDudley Moore instead. It was Moore's American film debut and led to his being cast in10 byBlake Edwards the following year.[5]
Higgins says when he sold the script he wanted to direct it so badly he did not care who was going to play the lead roles. He met with Fawcett to play the female lead before going with Goldie Hawn. His first choice for the male lead wasHarrison Ford (who had been Higgins' carpenter) who turned it down.Steve Martin was offered the role but did not end up playing it. Higgins says he offered the part to another actor who wanted to play the cop and Stanley Tibbets. Eventually Chevy Chase was cast.[7]
The film was shot in and around San Francisco, in locations includingNoe Valley, theMission District,Hallidie Plaza,Telegraph Hill,Hayes Valley,Nob Hill,Pacific Heights,Fort Mason, theMarina District, thePresidio,Potrero Hill,Japantown, and theWar Memorial Opera House. The lobby scenes of the opera house were filmed in the rotunda ofSan Francisco City Hall across the street. TheNuart Theatre, in which Bob Scott dies early in the film, is an art house located onSanta Monica Boulevard inWest Los Angeles. The houseboat "Galatea" was located at 15 Yellow Ferry Dock[8] inSausalito.[9]
Anovelization, by James Cass Rogers, based upon the screenplay by Colin Higgins, was published byJove Books in conjunction with the release of the film in 1978.[10]
"Ready to Take a Chance Again", the film's theme song, was composed byCharles Fox, with lyrics by Fox's writing partnerNorman Gimbel and performed byBarry Manilow, who conceived and supervised the song's recording in partnership withRon Dante. The soundtrack also includes"Copacabana" written by Manilow,Bruce Sussman andJack Feldman, and performed by Manilow; "I Feel the Earth Move" byCarole King, and "Stayin' Alive", written and performed by theBee Gees. Excerpts from Act I of Gilbert & Sullivan'sThe Mikado, conducted byJulius Rudel, are performed by members of theNew York City Opera.[5]Arista Records issued the album on LP and cassette, withIntrada Records reissuing it on compact disc in 2009.Varèse Sarabande released it in 2016, with Charles Fox's theme forthe television series as a bonus track.[11]
Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times called the film "a slick, attractive, enjoyable movie with all the earmarks of a hit. But asHouse Calls did a few months ago, it starts out promising genuine wit and originality only to fall back on more familiar tactics after a half-hour or so. If either film had a less winning opening, perhaps it wouldn't leave a vague aftertaste of disappointment. Colin Higgins...has aimed for the same kind of thriller-comedy-romance hybrid he attempted in writingSilver Streak, and this time he's much more successful ...Still, Mr. Higgins isn't a facile enough juggler to keep the film's diverse elements from colliding at times."[12]
Arthur D. Murphy ofVariety called it "an excellent film", adding "Writer Colin Higgins makes a good directorial bow. Goldie Hawn is superb in a strong return to pictures, and Chevy Chase, also above title, works well as a screen partner."[13]
Gene Siskel of theChicago Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and called it "an attractive minor comedy, the kind of film best described as 'cute.'"[14] On a 1986Tonight Show appearance, Roger Ebert called the film "a very good picture."[15]
Charles Champlin of theLos Angeles Times remarked that "Foul Play does offer a kind of duplex pleasure—as a celebration of the movies the way they used to make them, sleek, funny, exciting but unworrying, and in its own terms as a vividly adventurous romantic comedy."[16]
Gary Arnold ofThe Washington Post wrote "Foul Play never begins to make sense as a mystery story, and it's not incidentally amusing or stylish. At best, the film can be accepted as a harmless assortment of fake-outs and distractions, alternating in tone from innocuous to vicious, from disarming to offensive."[17]
Time Out London stated "Unsatisfactory as a whole, the film is hilarious and tense in bits" and noted "while writer/director Higgins uses almost every stock thriller device...he approaches this semi-parody with more zest and originality than is common."[18]
Channel 4 called the film "a finely tuned and fast-paced offering which is chock-full of black comic twists and perfect casting."[19]
Onreview aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 73% approval rating based on 30 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The consensus summarizes: "Entertaining and charming like its charismatic leads,Foul Play is a rollicking homage to the master of suspense for those who prefer mysteries with gags on top."[20]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 45 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[21]
| Year | Award | Category | Nominee(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Academy Awards | Best Original Song | "Ready to Take a Chance Again" Music byCharles Fox; Lyrics byNorman Gimbel | Nominated | [22] |
| Edgar Allan Poe Awards | Best Motion Picture | Colin Higgins | Nominated | [23] | |
| Golden Globe Awards | Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Nominated | [24] | ||
| Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Chevy Chase | Nominated | |||
| Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy | Goldie Hawn | Nominated | |||
| Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture | Dudley Moore | Nominated | |||
| Best Screenplay – Motion Picture | Colin Higgins | Nominated | |||
| Best Original Song – Motion Picture | "Ready to Take a Chance Again" Music by Charles Fox; Lyrics by Norman Gimbel | Nominated | |||
| Best Motion Picture Acting Debut – Male | Chevy Chase | Nominated | |||
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